Fine Art

A painting by Derby artist Ernest Townsend (1880-1944) was among the works that caused something of a surprise at auction early this year.

This watercolour and pencil drawing from 1833 which became the star lot at a recent sale at Nusser (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich had an imperial connection.

One of the attractions of the March 24-26 sale at Siebers in Stuttgart is a collection of 18 paintings by 19th century Polish artists who primarily belonged to the Munich school. The works were the property of a family of textile merchants, who moved from south Germany to Lodz, south west of Warsaw, in the 1930s.

In June 1925, only six months before his death, the Swiss painter Felix Vallotton and his wife visited the Périgord for the first time, which he declared to be “the most beautiful countryside on earth”.

Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) was one of the most prolific painters of her era, creating up to 1000 works of art, the majority of them portraits.

An increasing number of salerooms are now holding specialist sales dedicated to Post-war and Contemporary art with demand at primary market level driving auction opportunities

Another auction house staging regular sales of Scottish Contemporary art is McTear’s of Glasgow, whose next auction in this category takes place on February 28.

James Perkins, the co-founder of rave music promoter Fantazia, kept an eclectic collection of Contemporary art at Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire.

The largest contingent of works by British abstract painter John Blackburn (b.1932) ever to come to auction will be offered at Cheffins of Cambridge on February 25.

A large group of works from the collection of Allen and Beryl Freer has been consigned to Chiswick Auctions.

Frieze is opening No 9 Cork Street, an initiative housed in two converted townhouses that will accommodate visiting galleries throughout the year with a focus on Modern and Contemporary art.

Among the surprises at a Contemporary art sale at Ketterer (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich was the result for a work by the painter-poet Henri Michaux.

A drawing by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) will be among the lots on offer at Sworders’ sale of Modern British & 20th Century art on April 20.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Legendary yarn explains how this material became a key component of the artist’s designs

When Paul Feeley (1910-66) returned home after serving as a US marine in Japan during the Second World War, it triggered a fundamental shift in his art.

The American artist Donald Judd (1928-94) abandoned painting in the 1960s and devoted himself to producing three-dimensional objects.

It is well known that the death of an artist often leads to an upsurge of market interest and that has certainly happened with the Bulgarian Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, who died last year.